There's a decent game in here, somewhere. The setup is nicely done, with the bleak Yorkshire village and countryside providing the background to the ominous overtones and a preparation for some kind of finale. I think, in literature, it's fine to have a character fall into a fateful path that leads to a dark ending. I mean, Daphne du Maurier is an expert here. However, in a point and click game, it feels get wrong being trapped into performing a sequence of actions you know to be harmful; a cut scene where the character does something stupid, sure, but don't make the player act that way. The better game crying to get out would have had three endings: - She sacrifices herself to save her father - She sacrifices her father to save herself - The status quo is maintained In summary, the good: - Voice acting is excellent - The sense of being in the Yorkshire Moors is spot on The bad: - The finale is suddenly like being in an Indiana Jones game - Players shouldn't be forced to make bad choices The ugly: - Sprite scaling breaks the pixel art theme
We went in with an open mind to this game, having read mixed reviews. In summary, this is a game where everything is an allegory. Sometimes, it's subtle, but most of the time the game screams "this is an allegory" in your face, somehow likely to appeal to those who thought The Matrix was "deep". There are puzzles - the majority are fine, nothing too taxing, with one or two pretty tedious ones. There is no plot, however. We got bored at the half way point and just followed a walkthrough to get it finished. There's no profound ending. Dave Gilbert is excellent in his casting of voice actors. No, don't buy this, not even on sale.
If you fancy perhaps 1-2 hours of fun with a simple point and click game, this is perfect. The story is solid. I liked the light-hearted take on things. There are no "I didn't see that coming" twists, and no brain-scratching puzzles. It took me back (in a good way) to simpler games from simpler times. Get it, especially if it's on offer.
This is a visual novel with some interactive elements. The good: - Voice acting (range and emotions) - Motion capture makes human movements look natural - Art style - Unique idea for selecting dialogue choices The bad: - Every character is either a stereotype or a jerk (or perhaps a stereotype and a jerk); seriously, I disliked all the characters without exception - It's very male-centric, with only two female characters (one is a love interest) - Choices seem to have little to no impact on the story progression - even if you make "morally decent" choices, you end up with a sour ending - It lacks the exploratory charm of other "walking simulators" I got this free in a GOG deal, and would've been upset if I've parted with cash for it.
Pros: - Graphics are very nicely done, blending drawn 2D backgrounds with 3D characters - Nice environments - Light-hearted and sometimes humorous Cons: - Nonsensical puzzles - many of them involve combining random items without a clear goal in mind - Pixel hunting - in fact, even with a walkthrough, I struggled to find one of the interaction points - Incoherent story and pacing I only completed this because I feel a compulsion to finish all games, not because I enjoyed it. It's a real shame, as the devs clearly put a lot of effort into it. But remember, a point and click game rests entirely on the pairing of its story and puzzles. I really wanted to like this more than I did.
I came to this without knowing its history as a Skyrim mod, and tried to avoid as many spoilers as possible. The premise is that you're caught in a time-loop, trying to get everything to line up perfectly to be able to break the cycle. Essentially, it's an adventure game with a pretty small amount of FPS; in fact, it would work perfectly as a 2D point-and-click game too. Pros: - The scenery is beautifully done, especially for a small team - The puzzles all make sense; there is no need to consult a walkthrough ever - The characters are all different; they have different motives, personalities, secrets - There's some moral challenge, without it being preachy - The choices you make affect the ending Cons: - Unreal Engine and its shader compilation stutter can be annoying - The reveal at the end is a bit corny Totally recommended. Support the devs and the DRM-free release on GOG.
Summary: Having played Prey first, I was a bit unsure of the more RPG-esque appearance of Dishonored - but I was completely wrong. The same Arcane Studios elements are there, the most important being the one of the player's implicit choice in many actions. It's not simply whether you decide to play stealthily, be merciful, fight your way through, but you'll face situations where you have to think about the moral implications of what you do. To the naive, the game would look linear; if you open your eyes, you'll see decisions everywhere. Buy it. Even at full price, it's amazing. Positives: - Brilliant skill tree that integrates with the game - Multiple ways of solving every puzzle - What you do in the world has an effect - Graphically still stands up well today Negatives: - The plot twist is a little predictable - The algorithm for determining whether you killed anyone (possibly indirectly) is a bit dodgy - it's annoying to leave the unconscious in very safe places, only to be told that someone died, and not know who/where/what/why
Summary: This is a series of cutscenes (where the plot and character development happens) connected by fetch puzzles, stealth puzzles, or 'fight scenes'. I loved the continuation of TLJ's world, this time with new protagonists, and where the world has moved on in the intervening 10 years. Get it on sale if you liked TLJ, but be warned that it's not as good as its predecessor. Positives: - There's a lot of plot - Multiple protagonists, each with their own quests - Character development - no-one ends up where they started, and I like the common theme of 'faith' - 3D scenes stand up quite well given the game's age - Some of the voice acting is excellent (e.g. Crow) Negatives: - Lack of real puzzles - Combat is actually comically bad, and utterly pointless in the plot - The story seems like it ends when the writers got bored; there is no resolution, no cliffhanger, and various threads are plainly forgotten about - The third-person camera is nauseating; I couldn't see where I was going half the time - Zoe's voice actor sounds like she was bored throughout
Summary: As others say, this is style over substance. The parts of the game -- the setting, the art, the music, the characters, the plot -- should've led to a better game. Instead, it's incoherent. Half of the game is actually fairly good, with standard P&C puzzles. The rest is a mess, with very random "puzzles", excessive backtracking. A word on the pixel art: Superficially, it looks good. However, there are three big problems: 1 - The animation is poor (e.g. the main character never moves his head when walking) 2 - There is no scaling, yet perspective is used - this means objects visually grow in size when they move away from the camera; or it's overly done, like the floating heads in the slums scene 3 - Sprites and scrolling is not locked to pixels, making it look very jarring Positives: - Decent length of game-play with different scenes - Music has a unique style (for games) - Pixel art is superficially good - There are enjoyable sections of the game, with thought-provoking comments on our modern society Negatives: - The characters are all obnoxious - Writing is clunky - The puzzles often make no sense - characters suddenly offer new dialogue choices with nothing to explain why they would Meh, not great, but can live with: - Lack of voice acting - It's often hard to tell who's speaking in dialogue - The music becomes bland, with little variation in the use of synths, and gets in the way of the game at times - Derivative elements (such as a rainy city with an Oriental/US mix, like Blade Runner)
In summary, you have four days, and on each you will have to survive a different scenario; the game randomises them to a degree. On the first three days, you'll have to prepare for an attack of some kind. The last day provides a closure to the story. I wasn't aware of the other "Don't Escape" mini-games from the same designer, so didn't know too much about what to expect. That's no bad thing. Positives: - The puzzles are mostly logical - The pixel art is well done (no breaking form with different resolutions) - There's a gradual revelation of the plot and characters - Some replay value because of the randomised scenarios, and the ending (I won't spoil it) Negatives: - The time limit aspect added little; I never found a situation where I was in danger of running out of time - There are one or two puzzles that require visiting a place you've visited before to pick something new up - but there was no indication that this might happen - I missed some objects because it wasn't obvious what I could interact with - There's no real character development - I'd like to see one of them overcome some challenge and become better for it - Ending is a bit cheesy A great game when on sale.
